Thursday, January 18, 2007

Things That Go Bump In The Night: Part 1

(As always, click the pic for a much larger view.)

A couple of months ago I was over at Cryptomundo.com looking over the posts. As previously stated, I like to visit there because I enjoy 'critters' and it always gets the imagination firing. Loren Coleman (really nice guy, Cryptozoologist (among other areas of expertise) and one of the many great gurus on the site...) was talking about a picture of a chupacabras that he had on a post and how there weren't many of the creature 'in action'. That got me thinking and gave me a good opportunity to draw.

With such creatures there are always eyewitness testimonies and the occasional sketch by the viewer. And then there are those that act like police sketch artists and take the information and draw from descriptions. Having just weeks before seen a show on National Geographic about chupacabras, I was amazed at how quickly natural phenomenon or explainable events were turned into stories of chupy attacks that spread across entire countries...and how varied the descriptions of the creature was. So I searched the net for written descriptions and drew based upon the following:

A lizard-like being, appearing to have leathery or scaly greenish-gray skin and sharp spines or quills running down its back. This form stands approximately 3 to 4 feet (1 to 1.2 m) high, and stands and hops in a similar fashion to a kangaroo. In at least one sighting, the creature hopped 20 feet (6 m). This variety is said to have a dog or panther-like nose and face, a forked tongue protruding from it, large fangs, and to hiss and screech when alarmed, as well as leave a sulfuric stench behind. Some reports note that the creatures have pronounced eye sockets, teeth, and claws.

I chose this version over the more 'alien-like' descriptions because it just seems much more believable and makes more 'sense' visually for the chance to be a real creature...although I'm not really buying this cryptocreature at all...bigfoot, sea serpents you can sell me on...but not this guy...(and the show did a good job of showing how insects could account for many of the freakish events)...